(Of course, many liturgists will say, "But we do not belong to the eastern rites." However, Pope Benedict has shown in 3 Masses at the Sistine Chapel and once at the Pauline Chapel that Ad orientem worship is a legitimate possibility even in the Missal of Paul VI and in the Missal of John Paul II.)

3 comments:

I used to until the bishop forbade me unjustly. I say unjustly because ad orientem is a legitimate liturgical possibility even in the missal of Paul VI. I tried proving it with documents and pictures (just in case they did not understand documents) but all in vain.

father let us still hope and pray that the sense of sacredness be open in the hearts of both the clergy and the laity. we, the laity, will offer all our goodworks for the sanctification of the clergy and for the intentions of the holy FAther. thank you father for being a good priest to your flock. OBEDIENTIA ET PAX :)

The Immaculate One

All yours, my Queen and my Mother!

We ought to get back the dimension of the sacred in the liturgy. The liturgy is not a festivity; it is not a meeting for the purpose of having a good time. It is of no importance that the parish priest has cudgeled his brains to come up with suggestive ideas or imaginative novelties. The liturgy is what makes the Thrice-Holy God present amongst us; it is the burning bush; it is the Alliance of God with man in Jesus Christ, who has died and risen again. The grandeur of the liturgy does not rest upon the fact that it offers an interesting entertainment, but in rendering tangible the Totally Other, whom we are not capable of summoning. He comes because He wills. In other words, the essential in the liturgy is the mystery, which is realized in the common ritual of the Church; all the rest diminishes it. Men experiment with it in lively fashion, and find themselves deceived, when the mystery is transformed into distraction, when the chief actor in the liturgy is not the Living God but the priest or the liturgical director. - Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Chile, 1988)

Do we still need sacred space, sacred time, mediating symbols? Yes, we do need them, precisely so that, through the "image," through the sign, we learn to see the openness of heaven. We need them to give us the capacity to know the mystery of God in the pierced heart of the Crucified. - Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Spirit of the Liturgy )